Opinion

You stay classy, Roosters fans, after going back-to-back

The well-worn cliche about Roosters fans is that there isn’t many of them. And, if there is, they rarely venture past Anzac Parade, which is a fallacy because I saw at least a dozen of them at the grand final against the Raiders.

If the constant stream of abuse into this column’s inbox this week is any indication, there’s a lot more than that.

Anyone who’s dared to be critical of referee Ben Cummins changing his mind over a tackle restart in the final eight minutes of the decider has copped it in the neck.

Somehow, furious Roosters supporters have interpreted the debate about Cummins’ call as an attack on their premiership, their players, their coach, their unborn children.

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The excrement hasn’t just hit the fan but my poor old inbox. One bloke took me apart over a column that I didn’t write because it appeared in a rival publication. Another suggested I must have put money on the Raiders (I’m a bad punter, but not that bad).

Then came this appalling accusation: "You are clearly a Souffs supporter". Low blow.

Nobody, as far as I can see, is begrudging the Roosters winning back-to-back premierships – including Souffs supporters.

Can we not discuss a very significant moment that changed the course of the game – while also celebrating the Roosters’ being the first side of the NRL era to defend their title?

Can we not argue that Cummins changing his mind was wrong – while also saying it was unfair for Roosters halfback Cooper Cronk to be sin-binned?

Can we not question the broader problem of officiating in the NRL this season – while also lauding another incredible season from the Roosters in which they tackled everything but the corner post?

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Or are we, as fans of this great game of rugby league, now incapable of grasping such complex matters? Are we that binary? Does it have to be one or the other?

So, for the sake of balance and fairness and any perceived, let us lavish praise on the Roosters one last time.

Let’s start at the top with chairman Nick Politis and his board. Few have shown as much passion for their club as Uncle Nick since he first became involved as a sponsor in the 1970s.

His post-match interview on Channel Nine with Brad Fittler was significant.

"Is this the best Roosters team you’ve seen?" asked Fittler, who captained the 2002 premiership team.

"It is," Politis said. That’s saying something.

Opposition fans assume the team is millions over the salary cap, but it’s the club Politis has created, through years of hard work and his own hard earned, that has made it so attractive to players.

In the grand final, they had superstars across the park.

Prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is almost 31 but playing better than ever. He made two hit-ups in the opening set of the match and made 130 metres before half-time. He deserved the Clive Churchill Medal as much as Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton.

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The other standout forward was Sio Siua Taukeiaho off the bench. He ran for 184 metres in 47 minutes, and made a line break late in the match when the Chooks needed some inspiration.

Fullback James Tedesco could barely breathe throughout the match with so many Raiders defenders on him. But there he was, in the right spot, at the right time, hunting up the play, to score the match-winner.

But let’s roll the tape back a few seconds…

From being dumped from the Blues side after game one, to getting pushed and pulled by those in his inner circle about a possible move to Souths, to calling out appalling online racist abuse, he’s Latrell Mitchell has had a funky year.

He, too, was kept quiet by the Raiders’ defence. Then he missed a penalty goal at 8-all that would’ve kicked his side clear.

But there he was, flick passing like he’s Matt Gidley to release winger Daniel Tupou, who then passed inside for Tedesco.

Mitchell’s vision is being lauded, and rightly so, but it was five-eighth Luke Keary who set up that try, having the vision to scoot down the blindside.

The Roosters simply aren’t the team they are without Keary, but he’s become the player he has because of Cronk.

Should Cronk become an Immortal? Robinson joked afterwards that he had a better left-to-right pass. But we all know his brilliance extends beyond that; it’s his influence on the side, away from the field as much as on it, that makes him special.

Does that make him Immortal worthy? Cronk’s record alone – two titles at the Storm, two at the Roosters – means he’s in the discussion.

But, for mine, the two best players for the Roosters were their wingers.

The club was thinking about offloading Tupou a few seasons ago. Now, he’s often as damaging as Blake Ferguson bringing the ball out to start their sets. On the left, Brett Morris snuffed out bomb after bomb into his corner, leaping above the pack and coming down with the pill.

Yet the person who deserves the most credit is Robinson.

The Roosters were angry with a column in this space last week about him being disliked by rival coaches but adored by his own players. There was no malice intended, just an insight into how he’s perceived by some of his peers.

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Regardless of perception, there is no doubting Robinson’s greatness. Three premierships in seven seasons is one thing. But it’s the attitude of all his teams that makes them great.

Robinson is drawing comparisons to former Easts coach Jack Gibson, who won premierships in 1974-75 before winning another three with the Eels from 1981-83.

The cornerstone of Gibson’s philosophy was that everything started with defence. His favourite player wasn’t Arthur Beetson, it was Barry "Bunny" Reilly, who was the size of a halfback but axed ball-carriers whenever they came near him.

Gibson was an innovator, ahead of his time. Robinson is a football intellect.

Where Robinson loses many people, though, is when he tries to snooker people with that intellect, as he did on Nine’s post-match panel when Johnathan Thurston asked about the "six-to-go" controversy. Robinson's response did him no favours.

"Look I don’t know do you feel as though we got lucky there JT?" Robinson said, before adding: "Mate my thoughts? Honestly if you are bringing that up at this time there could have been lots of decisions that we want to go through."

According to his Nine colleagues, Thurston was "gutted" about the incident. He asked a relevant question and did so respectfully.

Anyhow, that’s it. Another Big Dance, over for another year.

Bravo to you, you magnificent Chooks. A raised decaf soy vanilla mocha with two artificial sweeteners to you.

Farewell to a Red V legend

Few had a heavier heart on grand final morning than St George winger Johnny King when the news broke that his former teammate, Eddie Lumsden, had passed away at the age of 84.

King had seen it coming, having visited him at North Shore Private Hospital on Friday morning. Lumsden had been struggling after suffering a heart attack three months ago.

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"He said, ‘Hello, Johnny’, but then slipped back into unconsciousness," King said. "We were like brothers. We played together, we were always roommates, we later owned pubs together."

Lumsden will go down as one of the Red V’s greatest players, having played in nine of the club’s famous 11 straight premierships from 1956-66.

"People forget how big he was," King said. "After Norm Provan, he was the biggest player in our side."

Lumsden’s funeral will be held at The Therry Centre, East Maitland, on Friday at 2pm.

The quote

"Sydney's racing boss has urged the VRC to consider moving the date of the Melbourne Cup. The often controversial Peter Vandalees [sic] was in town today, throwing another hand grenade in the often explosive turf war between Victorian and NSW racing." — Tim Watson introducing a story on Racing NSW boss Peter V'landys.

Thumbs up

Congrats to the South Coast Black Cockatoos, who won this year’s Koori Knockout, beating Griffith Three Ways in the final on the Central Coast on Monday. The team was put together by Ben and Mel Wellington in honour of their brother, James, who passed away a year ago. Beautiful stuff.

Thumbs down

At some point between 11.30pm on Sunday and 10.30am on Monday, thieves broke into Melbourne Italian restaurant Houdini's Cafe e Cucina and stole the 2017 Melbourne Cup — well a $20,000 replica thereof belonging to one of the part-owners of Rekindling. Good luck trying to cash that in at Happy Hockers.

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It’s a big weekend for …

Typhoon Hagibis. That’s a major weather event, not a Wallabies supporter tour, which is expected to hit Japan on Saturday and throw the whole Rugby World Cup schedule into disarray.

It’s an even bigger weekend for …

vroom-vroom fans who will be glued to the box for seven-or-so hours on Sunday for the Bathurst 1000. Smart money is on seven-time winner Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup. OK, my money.